Thursday, July 28, 2005

Clinton Street 1852

Three years ago when Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland and Paradise Alley, came to speak at 20, Adam and I projected the larger version of this map as a backdrop for Baker's discussion of what the LES looked like. In Paradise Alley, Baker vividly described Tom O'Kane's work as a butcher along a row of shops on Houston Street. After work Tom would go watch a battle of some wild dogs (?) that took place somewhere in the area of Pitt and Delancey. It was a raucous amusement amidst a backdrop of betting. The map helped me in imagining the context of the story and I think maps can serve the same purpose for the kids in understanding history. I used the section of the map shown to help accompany Sam's oral history.

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The picture above is a screen shot of my lower east side map from my google map "collection." It can be made fully functional but it overwhelms the column. I learned about mapchannels from digital urban. The free site also gives you the option to create a link to a full size version of a google map.